How an Entrepreneur's Passion Can Destroy a Startup

Strong Feelings Can Lead Founders to Make Bad Choices at the Worst Times. Here's What to Watch For.

By

Noam Wasserman

August 25, 2014

Call it the paradox of entrepreneurship: The very thing it takes to start a business often ends up destroying it.

I've spent the past 15 years researching people who start companies, and there's a consistent theme among the 16,000 founders I've analyzed. It's passion. Founders believe in their ideas so strongly they throw aside comfortable jobs and risk their life savings to chase their dreams. They have such contagious enthusiasm...